HEY everyone, it's been a while since we last sent one of these and a LOT has changed at KMCS in that time....

>>> A LOT!* <<<

In our relentless commitment to bringing you the best Minecraft experience available anywhere, we have done the following --->

* Added new Terrafirmacraft and "Attack of the B-Team" servers, to complement our Bukkit, Tekkit,

and 14w18b snapshot servers, giving us a total of 5 servers now!

* Implemented a Whitelist on 2 of those servers to ensure only the best, most mature members join!

* We have been building like crazy!

* We've added lots of new plugins to the Bukkit server!

* We've added lots of rewards and opportunities throughout the servers and website! Checkout our "Friends of KMCS (FoK!)" page!

* We've added lots of Ranks to give away as well as freebies!

* We've added lots of new donor perks and dramatically improved the WebStore!

* We have radically overhauled the website making it much easier and faster to get around (partly due to the addition of a "PageFooter" map to the bottom of every single page).

The site is also less taxing on the eye, and has also additional useful and interesting content!

* We've added fun minigames to the Bukkit server and are working on more!

* We have substantially improved our Facebook group and very regularly update it!

* We have added Facebook "Like" and "Share" pages to most of our website so you can share content you find interesting and/or useful!

* Again we're recruiting for op/admins and mods!

* An elaborate system of Contests and Leaderboards is well underway!

* We have a few new promo videos (check our homepage - or Youtube channel)!

* There is now a better URL for the website (kewlmcserver.net) - we lost that unprofessional-looking "webs.com" address and replaced it with our own domain name again!

* There is now an extensive system of logically-named subdomains, meaning you can easily get to any part of the site with just 1 simple, easy-to-remember link! And even if you've forgotten, they are so reasonably-named that you could probably guess at a valid link taking you to a page you care about!

We are also going to tie these links to commands in-game, so you are never more than a few keystrokes away from your favourite KMCS web-content!

* and we have done many, many other things and continue to ensure many exciting things are happening!!

Well, I'm going to do something unprecedented for this server. I'm writing the THIRD blog (the other being a double one) in the space of just 24 hours. But that's how much has been happening, and actually positive stuff.

Firstly; guess who expressed an interest in coming back and was on for a few hours last night? MONGFISH!!!! Guess who agree to start playing again a few hours later? THE TEALS!!!!!!!

*catching breath* *looking for the red carpet*

...and if that's not enough, I've given a pretty thorough redesign of the Navbar at the top. I've added a few brand new links (Help KMCS!, Invite) and renamed, hidden and moved a few others. Check it out!

I'm hoping you'll agree with me that it's a lot easier to read now and makes a lot more sense. However, there's always room for improvement. As always feel free to suggest anything you think we could do.

A few weeks ago when we went back to Bukkit, it became clear to me, that Minecraft and Bukkit were finally ready again. hMod being so rudely taken away from us may have disrupted a lot, but now things seem much more developed and sustainable with the modding community.

Anyway, I've been wracking my brains the last few weeks and I've got so many ideas and I know some of you have too. We can make things like the olden days, but so much better still.

What else? Oh yeah, I've got about 8 kewl plugins to add RIGHT NOW and there's another few DOZEN I'm considering....you can suggest more with this spiffy new form I added yesterday.

In conclusion, the dark days seem to be solidly behind us. Harsh lessons have been learned. Many of them. Bad things have happened. Many more. The waters were stormy, some days looked bleak and without hope.....but we prevailed.....and now we're gonna kick ass. We're back baby!

Hi and welcome to the 2nd and final part of my first, and the first ever, double-blog on KMCS!

Firstly; I'd like to take this opportunity to invite more suggestions for plugins and mods. Me and Vashal have created a thread for you to do so here.

Second; if you'd like to write a blog yourself, or have ideas for our next blog, feel free to say so

Anyone can do this. Although obviously it'll need to be related to the server, or at least Minecraft.

Third; I'd like to know what everyone thinks about the website design. Is it good? Is it bad? Is there room for improvement? Does it make your eyes bleed?

Can you get around it easily enough? Maybe you have some ideas of things that could be changed, added, removed etc?

Also if you have "Moderator" status on the forums feel free to tidy-up a little bit. Maybe we could add more formatting to threads, make them easier to read, more links, resurrect useful old threads and so on....perhaps some of those threads would be better off as site sections and linked to from the Navbar? I already have Several new pages and sections in mind, but maybe you've thought of something I haven't.

Something that definately needs tidying up, and perhaps more entries is the FAQ. At the moment I think it's not very easy to get around and it's way too much information for most people to want to take in at once, IMO.

Concluding this 2-part blog; I'd like to talk about VIP Upgrade-Account pricing. If you want more commands than you'll know what to do with and don't want to wait for the possibility of promotion then you'll want this. It'll also help with our server and site costs. At the moment, there are 3 main VIP plans that can be purchased; Silver, Gold and Diamond, in ascending order of features. This works on a subscription basis. You pay for the amount of time you want the account.

At the moment the plan is for the longest subscription to be 2 years and the shortest a single week. There will be several time-periods available inbetween.

The longer the period, the better value for money you'll get. However, the very short periods on offer could be useful for you to determine if you really want that - a try before you buy kind of thing.

Remember, this is all to cover server costs, and any money that's left over after paying them will go into expanding the server; making it bigger and better for you all.

Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed this blog. There are many other things I could say, but that's enough for now

This is the first 2-part blog I've written so far on KMCS. This means today's blog will be followed by another one in 24 hours or less, that I've already written. Hopefully this will be enough time to digest everything....

Onto business; first, I'm happy to report the servers ongoing stability. Crashes are now very rare indeed. And if you do find the server down it's most likely because I'm restarting it due to adding a new plugin. If that happens try again in a few seconds

Second; A number of new plugins have been added. You can find out which by typing /plugins

With Eco you can sell almost any item to the shop. You can send money to other players. You can buy parcels of land for your town. You can find the amount the server is willing to pay for items. You can check your balance. You can check all the balances listed from richest to poorest. And through admin intervention you are able to buy many items from the server. We are working to automate this process however.

It is true we still don't have auctions back. I know how much fun they were and have not forgotten. So very soon we'll either be adding iAuctions, AuctionHouse or something similar. I can't promise there's currently a working auction plugin for Bukkit right now, but I can promise we'll do our best to find out and add it if it exists

The other money plugin we have right now is called ChestShops. This allows anyone to setup their own automated shops for buying and selling to other players.

Third; We also have a few new towns again and hopefully soon nations too. Anyone is free to create a town now, you no longer need 3 people to do that and you no longer need a mod or admin to do it for you. To get a detailed list of commands for town stuff just type /town ?

For example, if you wanted to create a town it'd look something like this, "/town new awesomeville homersimpson" etc. With the last part being the player who gets to be mayor of it, and the first part being the town's name.

There's a lot more plugins than these however, come see for yourself (IP: kewlmcserver.com or 87.106.100.88)

Fourth; The server has now got to a stage where I believe it's ready for some more active promotion to get new members in. Feel free to recommend the server to whoever you want and however you want. You can even use the link above called "TAF" (Tell-a-Friend).

I think it's safe to assume the more people we have, the better the server will become-

More chance of people being here when you login. More people joining your towns. More chance of nations being formed. More people to trade with.

Something that might help get new people in is if you make videos of the things you make and feel proud of. Not only that, but it'll allow your creations to live on forever in a sense....even if and when we start new maps.

If you make videos you could add a message at the end, or on your Youtube pages saying something like, "Visit us at kewlmcserver.com - and mention <yourname> when visiting"

If you do this, and people mention YOUR name, then I will reward you personally with credits to use with the economy mods. It seems only fair.

If they visit for a few minutes but don't stay, for whatever reason, I'll still reward you. However, I will reward you with MUCH more if they stay around. By that I mean if they stay around long enough to become Regular Members....say 15 hours, a week, or something like that.

Also it seems the more places we're mentioned (especially in a good light) and the more people who "Vote" for us in various places, the better. So I've added a "Vote for us" thread with a link.

At the moment I only know of this one place for voting, but I'm guessing there are many more. Any ideas?

Lastly (for part 1); you may have noticed a link in the navbar above called, "Ye olde shoppe" or something? Well....I would like to offer you the chance of DESIGNING YOUR OWN products and selling them at the shop.

At the moment I've only done 2 designs for test purposes mainly. You can make your own designs very easily, it's essentially just an image (JPEG etc).

If you make a kewl design you can send it to me and I'll put it on shop attached to whatever type of product you mention. If your design promotes the server then I will share between 60 and 80% of the proceeds with you (yes, upto EIGHTY), depending on how much the emphasis is for promoting KMCS. If your design is for something else, and not about KMCS then I will share 40% of the proceeds with you. Sure, you could setup your own shop to sell stuff that's not related to KMCS, and I'd encourage you to do that, however, the idea is that the KMCS shop will be more likely to get hits as it's linked from the website and connected with the server.

Hopefully, the above, if done properly, will make us some money, exercise our creative muscles AND promote the server a bit.

Anyway, if you want any further information, specifics, clarification or whatever about any of the above, let me know, either in the comments below, in the forum, by PM, or however you want lol.

I realize that not everyone is comfortable creating or posting on threads so feel free to use the "Communicate" link above if you want to communicate privately with me or another member of staff.

TL;DR- things are going very well and should continue doing so for the foreseeable future - part 2 coming up tomorrow (already written)

Ok, now that Bukkit seems pretty stable and mature we're using that again.

Could THIS make the successful rebirth for the server? THIS time?

....what's that, attempt number 800 now?

Anyway....I want to extend a big thank you to everyone who's helped get the server this new lease of life, especially [Admin] Vashal. You're doing a great job

The plan now is to continue adding plugins and perhaps start adding SMP mods, if such a thing exists. Can anyone suggest any of either they'd like? The plugins will have to be for Bukkit and you can see a list of them here and here.

At the same time as doing this, we'll need to construct somekind of a spawn and at least 1 jail. Anyone want to help with this, or even do it themselves? I admit my building is pretty lame, so we're not going to get anything spectacular if I'm working on it.

I've tried cleaning the site up a bit, adding a few links at the top to the navigation bar and generally making things a bit more presentable. But there's always room for improvement. Any suggestions? Any thing I could add, change or remove? Does the design work for you?

Things are generally going quite well, however, we've lost a lot of our old players, especially from Europe, so the server is empty most of the time, especially during the morning/afternoon here in the UK. Would be nice to get a bunch of new people in. Any ideas how or how we can promote the server a bit?

Again, thanks for everyone's support with this. It keeps me motivated to continue improving things.

Wow, it's been a REALLY long time since I made a blog here, but thought I better had so I could say everything in the one place instead of trying to say everything spread out over many threads. It's a bit of a long read, but hopefully you'll learn something new, interesting, useful

Firstly, we've been forced to start a new, new, new, new map, again.

And there's a very strong chance we'll have to do this again once 1.9 of Minecraft comes out. We're at 1.8 now. I'm sorry but I don't think this can be helped. When new stuff is added by Notch, especially new block types, then new maps generally have to be started.

....So, basically either don't build anything that it'd kill you to lose, or if you want a copy of the map for yourself, that you can play offline, or on your own server or whatever, make sure you donate. It helps cover our substantial costs every month. And getting a copy of the map for yourself to play offline, in singleplayer is one of the many rewards for donators/upgraders

NB: We NEVER throw away old maps, we keep them archived just incase anyone wants them.

Also, I ask that, until we can put CanaryMod or Bukkit back on the server, that you stay within an area of about 1000 untis from spawn, 2000 at the absolute max. You can press F3 to see where you are. Also don't forget you can make maps with paper, redstone and iron.

Try to remember also that until we get CanaryMod or Bukkit the server is vulnerable to griefing so please remember these points:

1) Be on good terms with everyone, don't piss people off, don't kill people, don't steal from people or grief them. I'm gonna keep PvP on for now, unless enough people want it removed, but remember if you kill people, you run the risk of pissing them off and they might retaliate by griefing you etc.

2) Make sure you tell us about problems.

3) Don't build too close to spawn unless you're willing to risk brand new people griefing your stuff. It's upto you. But also remember not to build beyond that 1000 boundary I mentioned.

4) Think about building your most important or valuable stuff underground, or so people can't see it. You don't have to, but if people can't see it, they can't grief it, right?

5) Absolutely remember to hide your chests somehow. If people see your chests we cannot stop them from stealing until we get Canary/Bukkit back. That might take a few weeks, or more.

Griefing is against the rules here, it's pointless dumb trolling and you run the risk of being banned or at least suspended if you do it. At the very least you'll NEVER get the chance of being a mod or an admin if we think you're griefing. Also, if you think someone is griefing you or anyone else, please get evidence, take a screenshot of the damage or ideally of them doing it, but please don't retaliate.

Which takes me to the next point - we need a few new mods and 1 or 2 new admins.

Being a mod, means you get extra commands, powers, respect etc. Also it's the best way of eventually becoming an admin. Admins on here are practically Gods.

If you want to apply for mod role then click on the "Recruiting" link at the top....see it? You might want to explore the other links up there too....and don't forget about "SERVER DOWN???", if the server seems to be down for you, then feel free to use it. You click it, then the "Contact Us" link.

If you want to be considered for admin then you will have to have had be around for at least a few months or have been a very competent mod for at least a few weeks. Please don't ask if you don't think you fit that criteria.

Hi!After a long absense from blog-writing I have decided to write this to let everyone know what has been happening, what is happening right now and what will hopefully happen next.

Most importantly of all to let everyone know KMCS is NOT DEAD and I will NEVER allow it to die. It can be stressful sometimes, but giving up would be even worse.

So enough of trying to setup your own servers. Doing it PROPERLY is very hard work indeed and costs money plus I have extensive experience of it now. I've been at this for months now, so trust my comments about it. I know what works and what doesn't work.

At the start of all this I threatened to do a daily blog, but for numerous reasons this isn't really feasible. However, I'll try doing one at least once a week, I also have no objections to other people writing blogs for us. You don't even need to be an admin or mod either, I'll consider all blogs from any server regular.

We tried Bukkit when hey0 stopped supporting hMod and that was so broken, so incomplete and so unsupported by plugin developers that we gave up on it for a while.

I predicted, "it wouldn't be ready for at least a few months!". That's how broke it was.

Then recently we tried it again. We had 2 servers. One server for hMod 1.1 where people still had to use the downgraded client from Digiex and another "test-server" for Bukkit.

Well, after a week or 2 of evaluation I see Bukkit has indeed made some progress but my prediction was fundamentally correct....months have passed and it STILL isn't completely ready....

Sure it has "potential", but that's BS. I want something that works here and now.

What we have now is the best of both worlds. ALL the latest things found upto and including Minecraft 1.3 (dyes, squids, beds, sandstone, dispensers, cake, all that stuff) PLUS almost all of our old favourite hMod plugins AND working as they should be!

I have also cleaned-up the ranks structure a bit. VIP which becameGreenVIP is now dead and has become one of 4 possibilites for people. These are-

*BuilderVIP(awarded because you're a great builder!),

*ArtistVIP(awarded for making artistic things especially pixelart and videos),

*HelperVIP(awarded for generally being helpful to people),

*AwesomeVIP(2 or more of the above).

These make much more sense than just "VIP" or "Green". It wasn't specific enough. People had to ask what it meant and how to get it. Fail. This is much better.

The AwesomeVIP rank simply means you're 2 or more types of VIP.

You may be a great Helper AND a great Builder, in which case you deserve the "Awesome" title....

If you are a HelperVIP or ArtistVIP you are more likely to be considered for Admin roles at some point. Much more likely if "AwesomeVIP".

All of those VIP ranks are EARNED and result in extra status, respect, rights and extra commands for you.

Will be adding a Ranks and Roles page where all of this is explained in more detail.

Be helpful to me, the mods, admins, other people and you'll get HelperVIP status.

Make awesome artistic things like "pixelart" or awesome vids and you'll earn ArtistVIP.

BuilderVIP is self-explanatory really, just make awesome constructions.

Some of you may recall I was having problems getting to this site from my ISP. Was incredibly frustrating. Well, after about a week of that and much investigation it seems the guilty party was my ISP and not webs.com. Apparently after legions of my old ISP's customers complained they eventually fixed it, but too late for me. I ditched that ISP now, problem solved and have MUCH faster broadband plus cheaper into the bargain

Not sure if we'll be ditching webs now, will be a pain to migrate everything across to somewhere new, so unless you can suggest somewhere much better we'll be staying here for now.

People can now come and go as they please. No need for the hassle of downgrading their client software, no need to apply for whitelist. There is no WL anymore (EDIT: However, I AM planning to add an Emergency Whitelist (EWL) for extreme scenarios). Anyone is welcome now (unless they've been previously banned). I will be adding a "special form" for them in next few days :>

Sure, there's still a few plugins we're wrestling with like Vanish and iConomy, but we will persevere, and are also open to help from others.

We've also started adding some new plugins for first time such as NPCs, it looks like fun

Many other things remain to be done, so we will need more mods (for server and forum-mods) and more admins.

I am going to add 2 application forms. One for JuniorMods, the other for JuniorAdmins. People can still become SeniorMods and SeniorAdmins but they can only earn it over time, and not just get it from an application form.

All of the people who were admins or mods (apart from the Teals) need to reapply using said forms. This is because I handed out those ranks too easily before. I need to be 95%+ sure that this time I'm giving those ranks to people who won't let us and the server down, especially when there's a crisis as there has been over last few months.

Anyone can apply for mod or admin via one of the forms I add, just don't ask us personally about it, it's all to be done via the forms now. You apply; we consider it; then let you know our decision. That's it. If you're unsuccessful you can try again after a few weeks. But we don't spend time chatting about it. And anyone hassling about it will fail application or even risk being demoted.

There are different types of activity for mods and admin.

At the moment, lots of work is needed on website, so admins focusing on "webdesigner" task would be much appreciated as we seriously need somekind of proper Homepage.

There is also need for lots of automation of common tasks and admins with knowledge of Linux for being "scripters" I guess would also be helpful with that. There is also a need for plugin configuration and increased content.

If you want to increase your chance of earning HelperVIP or if you're already an admin; I STRONGLY urge you to look in the Downloads section at "Achievements Editor". Download this and you can define your own achievments for use by everyone in server. See this thread for more info.

Also in the process of adding a survey form to website, but also thinking of adding a getsatisfaction account for KMCS. Feel free to use as much as you want. The survey is still needed because it asks highly specific questions.

What is happening later?

*Perma-Bans are gonna be less likely now. As originally planned I'm gonna use other means to deal with people causing problems (including suspensions). Admins and mods have a long, fun list of ways to deal with troublemakers. Also, this is partially gonna involve resurrecting the famous "pink" status

Also something all the people who've gone off to try their own little servers need to know....if you want to advertise those servers on here or on my server itself, you will need to pay first or we'll just simply mute/jail you, or ban you if you do it persistently. Why should we let you advertise your servers for free here? They're just gonna fail anway lol. Trust me.

For serious people; We can help you advertise your products and services in a number of innovative ways, please use the CONTACT US link above so we may begin a dialogue.

Donations are still welcome, however, I am now referring to them as "Upgrades", more than "donations". You are paying to support the server and site, but most importantly to "upgrade" your account. This entails lots of privildges and extra commands which are all spelled out on the Upgrades page, which will appear shortly.

One of these benefits are custom titles and custom colours. The Teals are "King" and "Queen" for example and selected their own colours. And I am "Emperor". lgotpower was briefly given title of "Pen0rBreath" for lolz, but I restored "BuilderVIP" to him which is more accurate.

I'm gonna bite my tongue and stick it out with Bukkit, so we don't lose stuff like

MagicCarpet and LWC chest protection. I hate it, but it seems to be ok with those 2 plugins, maybe teleport too.

EDIT: ditched Bukkit, rolled server back to 1.1 meaning we have hMod and the plugins again! Yay!

BUT.....

The server is going whitelisted....

This means that all admins, all mods, the VIPs and a few regulars are automatically welcome.

I also will be accepting new people for the whitelist on a continual basis. New people will need to apply here first, answer some basic questions, then be watched to see if they behave right and eventually if we all can agree they're not a problem, they get added to the list.

If you want an automatic guarantee of being considered for the Whitelist, no promises though, and no refunds possible.....you need to donate $5 via paypal. My paypal is [kewlmcserver AT gmail DOT com] and I'll setup a donations page today.

However, if you want a guaranteed place on the whitelist and not just to be considered, then you need to either buy a Silver, Gold or Platinum membership. The silver is $7 for 12 months, the gold is $15 for 12 months and the Platinum is $20 for 12 months. Each has different benefits. However, if you go down this road and insist on misbehaving you'll still be subject to kicks and maybe even bans. It'll just allow you to take the shortcut of avoiding the whole vetting procedure.

Also; for the mods and admins, feel free to suggest questions we could ask as part of vetting procedure.

Anyway, as always, any questions and suggestions welcome.

PS the donations system is for 3 reasons....

1) Capitalism FTW

2) As a sign of your commitment to server.

3)This all costs money to run.

PPS don't donate until you know you're NOT on the whitelist, well, unless you want to. But you don't need to.

Following on from, "UHHHH, LITTLE HELP!!!????" blog. I have been left with no choice but to do lots of bans. Can't be bothered with demotions for now i.e. the server survives for another day.

I'd rather have a server of much fewer quality people, than legions of idiots I can't trust.

Bans and reason (maybe you can avoid the same fate):

The German guys from Haderpur: It's just easier this way. And they were never coming back to Pink status anyway. See previous blog on specifics about these "people".

Shooter70: Making frequent demands of me, admins and mods. Promised he'd find the name of chest log thing we DESPERATELY need. Failed. Out.

iiEXXTR3MEii: This has been coming for a long time. Way too many mistakes; some really big ones too. I offered him Admin status as a bribe to come over from old server. This was a REALLY IDIOTIC mistake on my part. Roles of any kind should always be earned.

Massacr: EXX's buddy. I asked him if he wanted Mod status. He didn't reply for a whole week. Bye.

money12345: Cheated. I suspended him for a few days, but it's not enough. Also; again his "mod" status was a bribe from last server. Banned.

Fiess1: Griefed. Set fire to money's house. His own brother. I banned him for about 30 minutes at the time, but CBA, it's perma now.

Goofy_Junior: Money's partner in crime. His 2nd offence. Again, suspended this guy, but CBA being so tolerant anymore. Banned.

Blipps: PvP'ed me in his house when I was doing admin rounds. He asked me, "what are you doing here?" and gave me roughly 2 seconds to reply before putting iron sword in my head. I replied by setting fire to his house then pinking him, but screw it, it's easier to ban especially considering Pink doesn't work properly (another problem to fix).

ZwaAx: Disrespecting and ignoring mods plus Blipps partner in crime.

Anyone else wanna leave via Banhammer or can you respect the type of server I'm trying to build here? Read Rules and Regs if you want to see what I had in mind for server.

See what I'm doing there? The lesson is simple; be 100% sure of the rules and regs, and if there's anything you don't know; ask (either me, or better yet, someone else) because I've now officially ran out of patience.

To everyone who was banned; f* off, find another server, all decisions are final.

....oh and I'm thinking of starting a new map in a few days. We don't have to though. Let me know if you're really opposed to it, if most people wanna stay, we can stay for now. My reasoning is that the map got a bit too quick too fast. I'm not sure we have enough memory to cope with 2300 x 2300 size map. Maybe we do. Someone please educate me about these things.....also we have too many abandoned properties, especially in Haderpur.....opinions? Thanks.

Update: EXX is unbanned, but he's down to VIP until we have a frank discussion, or longer.

I never thought I'd have to write this but......admins, you wanna, uhhhh, admin a little bit????

I don't wanna have to start demoting, but I''m very close to that right now.

The server and site have so many problems right now. I can't fix them all on my own. There aren't enough hours in each day and I don't see why I should anyway. So now I'm on the edge of either doing a few admin/mod demotions or closing server down altogether.

PROBLEMS:

* The German guys and what to do with their town; Haderpur? I'd rather not destroy it, but it's a ghost town right now. I think the last 2 residents have left now. Ideas?

* The lack of chest logs. This means I'm holding off on installing iConomy plugin. People WILL cheat if we don't have proper chest logs. Shooter70 was supposed to look for us, but has failed completely. Any ideas?

* The insane size of map and whether or not we have enough memory for it or whether we need to restart it from scratch. Is 3GB of RAM enough for 2300 x 2300 map? We have BorderLands installed so it's not growing any larger, but maybe it's too large already. Ideas?

* The lack of iConomy and Stargate / Portals. These 2 would add so much to the server. You wouldn't have to tp to each other anymore to do deals. You could auction or sell to the shop etc. Hell, you could even setup your own shops and let them do the work automatically even when you're offline. But, are these 2 plugins REALLY broken still after Beta? Broken for everyone? I was doing some server recon the other week (as some admins and a mod refused to do it for me) and found a server where they both worked. Ideas?

* The logs being spammed with error messages and me getting emails from cron daemon about it. Cron daemon has sent me serveral THOUSAND emails in last week about these problems. Ideas?

* "/enableplugin Lookup". Is this broken on all servers? Doing that on ours causes server to lag for several minutes.

* Admins and mods who are either never there or don't understand even the basics of server.

Specifically; why the Hell did nobody do /enableplugin the whole day to fix /rules while I was SLEEPING? Am I supposed to fix stuff while I'm asleep???

* Tthe huge drop-off in traffic. I initially setup this server wanting 40+ slots, it's not happening so far. The Germans leaving has made this even worse. This is depressing. I'm thinking somekind of competition to produce best video or posters might help. The winners and runners-up could get Platinum, Gold and Silver accounts. Although if an admin or mod wants to try something with Fraps or whatever, and it looks kewl, I'm not gonna argue

We've got plenty of awesome things on the map we can show off now.

There's many more problems I could list, but they are the main things. If you wanna see more issues look at the previous blog called "priorities". I have a list of about 40 things there.

The problem isn't that I can't fix that all myself, it's that there aren't enough hours in the day for me to do it all on my own quickly.....

Just a quick blog before next few. I have a few big ones lined up. Including a competition I'm planning.

Anyway; everything seems to be going reasonably well, and we discovered the good news that iConomy and Stargate (the portals) are indeed working out there in some places, after the Beta, so we just need to do something differently. I downloaded very latest iC, and gonna try it again in the next 24 hours or so.

Not had many reports of lag, and it seems a quick restart of server resolves it when it is reported. Maybe Hey0 has some memory leaks, or plugins that cause them? Anyway, next time there's lag please drop me a /sendmail to tell me and tell me the approximate time so I can look through logs more effectively (try to determine exactly what went wrong). Check resource usage etc.

I discovered quite a few plugins do not autostart when the server is restarted. WTF?

Anyone know what's going on? Is this something a lot of people with Hey0 / hMod are experiencing? Anyway; if you're a mod or admin and I'm not around or busy you can start these plugins yourself by using the /enableplugin command. It should then tell you, "Plugin Enabled".

- The ones that usually need manually restarting are: LWC, BackupPlugin, WorldGuard, Tip (or is it Tips), SearchIds, Hungry, PromotePlugin - in approximate order of importance.

These must be running at all times, don't forget this. I think /listplugins shows what's running.

Aside from that been brainstorming with Mong (that sounds so wrong - :O) and we've got quite a long list of ideas for site and server itself. Also have long list of ideas for plugins to add, or even try writing myself.

So, that's it for now until MAJOR blog in next day or two and I'll talk about competition then.

Also would be nice to see some more comments on these blogs so I know people are reading these, or not.

PS if you're an Admin/Red don't forget to check out MagicCarpet (write /mc)

PPS if I don't see you before tomorrow night or if I'm in a crappy mood then (lol)- Happy New Year and all the best for 2011

When I started these blogs I set out to write 1 or more per day, but seems I'm slipping a bit

Anyway, almost all the plugins I've set out to use are in place, but there remain a few stubborn ones. I just cannot get them working so far. These are:

Stargate (the portals)

iConomy (money, auction, shops etc)

I don't know if Minecraft going to Beta has broken them or what. Maybe I'm just doing something wrong. It would help us enormously if you could do some recon; go to other servers and ask if their portals/stargate and iConomy is working. Maybe everyone is in the same boat.

Getting these to work would be a massive victory for the server.

Apart from this it seems my advert at mcserverlist.net has paid off. Literally dozens of new people have appeared on server since I placed this. Yay!

We now have 4 towns and there's already discussion of a nation being formed.

I've never seen Nations in Minecraft, so I look forward to this

I'm about to add a metric buttload (yes that is correct unit of measurement) of Achievements that I've been amassing the last few days and there's now an extensive list of tips that appear ingame. I have cauldrons working with a few recipes besides the default one. So now you can MAKE things like gold ore if you can't be bothered going to look for it. If you can think of Achievments we should add, then let me or an Admin know, or mention it in the forums in the right thread.

I also concluded that I should let you contribute to the "readable books" that Craftbook offers.

Try right-clicking on a bookshelf and you'll see what I mean. If you want to enter your own book here (actually just a few lines or paragraphs of text) about pretty much anything you want, then send me or an Admin the text or put it on the forum - I'm going to create a thread in a minute inviting books.

Bridges, lifts and gates are all working too! If you want to use these things look at the Links section above, then follow the link to "Craftbook" or ask and we'll probably explain it. Bunch of other things working too. But don't take my word for it. Get on the server and see for yourself!

I MIGHT be able to restore some stuff from Cuboids if any protected their stuff.

I personally protected the new spawn area quite extensively. Mong did you protect your Obama (?) thing? If so, I might be able to get them back and put on new map. If you don't care that's also fine.

Personally I don't really care about the new spawn, I think there's a lot we could improve about it anyway (see below). Even though it was good. But if you want me to spend time trying to get it back, I will. Something I am willing to offer is Admin promotion to Echo_215, as a lot of the work around spawn was done by you, and being an admin means you'll have access to Cuboid so could work much faster, either on something new, or trying to recreate the tunnels etc.

Enira was also recently promoted to Admin status. I guess Enira; you could create just 1 awesome tower, then clone it a few times with cuboid, so that should save some time. Also being Admin means you can just spawn whatever you need, if you prefer hand-placing your blocks and not using cuboid for building.

Mongfish was already Admin so can't really offer much consolation, sadly. If you think of something, let me know

I think you 3 were the only people besides me with a serious investment in that map, so between you decide how we should proceed and let me know please.

My own vision for the [new] spawn is something like this;

* Make it further out from land (it was too close to some (on the glass tunnel side) IMO).

* Make it less artificial-looking, so instead of a big rectangle we could make it look like a big rock in the water, "shapelier", and make it rise up quite a bit. Instead of being flat like a pancake.

* I still love the castle/towers idea. So we could put that ontop. But I think the surface area at the top should be bigger so there's plenty of space for "townsquare" (now courtyard) we had in the middle.

* We could continue with the jail cells me and EXX were starting in the basement. I also think somekind of modest bridge could come from one side of the island to the mainland, but it doesn't have to. I still think boats, portals and underwater/submerged tunnels are the best way to link to the rest of the map.

* Perhaps Enira you could continue with big ship idea and put that near island?

Something I strongly need to urge of all Admins and Gold/donating Mods is that you don't just cuboid protect your stuff, but also use the /csave /cload and /clist commands to create ondisk saves of your cuboids that you can then access at any time. This is just an added layer of protection if anything ever goes wrong with map again

Phew.....

Now some more positive developments;

Firstly; we have Hey0 mod back, yay!!!!!! That vanilla server was starting to really stress me out. No plugins, no protection, nothing. Is nice to be back to Hey0 / hMod

Second; I've got a load of plugins working, bunch of new /tips and closing in on fixing the difficult ones like iConomy etc. Am wondering if I should use MySQL version of it instead of the flatfile one.

Anyway; just write /help to see the extra commands you have now. And write /town ? to see syntax for creating towns.

Oh and /search is working finally

Anyway, let me know how we're proceeding with the map and direct new people here (the site and this blog).

Oh hai, well, I have submitted the server and site to mcserverlist.net a few hours ago, and submitted website to the big search engines so don't be alarmed if we get a big increase in visitors over coming days and weeks.

A server I used to admin on randomly found itself at #2 on that list and had literally dozens of new people joining over the space of a single weekend

This could be an interesting test for our new mods. See if they're upto the challenge.

Also, we still have no news of a b132 updated release of Hey0's mod. Officially it was supposed to be the 24th or 25th, but with Xmas who knows when we might see it. This lack of Hey0 means we're running the vanilla server, which is essentially no frills, no plugins etc, so don't expect any commands like /home /sethome /compass /motd etc.

However I am hoping to have Hey0 and all our favourite plugins running within minutes of knowing there's an updated server. Keep an eye on hey0.net plus ishmodupdated.com and keep me notified of what happens please.

"Arcade"; bunch of Flash games, not tried any yet and only added a few so far (there's thousands)

"Links" to other relevant sites. Any more I could add? Maybe you could add some if you can think of something good?

"Testimonials"; sorry, couldn't resist

I also upgraded the website from the free one to basic paid account, despite my whining about webs.com, so hopefully it performs a bit better and I don't have to worry about looking for an alternative for a bit longer. The free version offerered 100MB of monthly traffic and apparently we used 30+MB in first few days This one offers 5GB a month

Server seems to be doing ok with temporary map, not huge amount of problems, only slight lag reported. But hopefully on the 24th or 25 we'll be able to revert to our original map and the updated Hey0, yay! Also, I've been working on the configs for a few of the more major and fun plugins (iConomy, Towny, Craftbook, Stargate, Tips, Achievements) so hopefully that'll be ready very soon after.

Dunno if anyone reads these, but you should. Here's what been happening and what's coming next....

Firstly; I wanna welcome new members to the site and server

That's the Yo!

The Doh is the next 2 bits....

Firstly, does anyone have any ideas how to fix "disconnect.overflow" and does Notch know about it? A few connecting people are getting this then being immediately disconnected. Google isn't revealing a huge amount about it either. The victims of this are only getting it on our server, nowhere else. Also no-one else is getting it apparently. Only thing I know about their setups is they have the same ISP. What might fix this? Thanks.

Second; after numerous irritations and challenges today we have a temporary server with new map up. This is only until the 24th or 25th when hopefully there'll be a new version of Hey0's Mod released (http://www.hey0.net). Once that is released we'll revert back to the awesome map that was developing in earnest. The reason for this is that while we have no Hey0 we cannot offer any type of protection from griefers, as far as I know, and I won't be responsible for people's stuff being trashed. It's just a few days. Sadly this seems to happen everytime there's a major update of Minecraft, but what can we do?

Third; I've decided to make the original map (with the new awesome spawn etc) that we'll be going back to, available for download for your single player games. The only stipulation I have for this is that you're a GOLD member i.e you make a donation. This isn't because I'm greedy or anything, it's because the server needs the money. It'll enable us to upgrade host, pay for better one, pay for better web-hosting etc and things like that.

You might build something awesome and want to have it available in single player, either when the server's down, if you got banned, if you get bored and leave, or in the unlikely event that the server ceases to exist. Also, you could even gain a tactical advantage from it....

When the servers down, you could explore the map and get a better idea of where things are, then grab them quickly when server comes back online. Say you see some cactuses (cacti :P) or reed or something in the distance, or you find a dungeoun, you'll know exactly where to find it once the server comes back online and grab it before someone else!

Is this cheating? Not really. Anyone can get themselves Gold status.

Basically you'll be entitled to a copy of the map whenever I take a backup, which will be several times a day, maybe even hourly. You just ask for it and I'll send it to you or let you download it. You could even use the CuboidPlugin in singleplayer to try transplanting stuff you like from the map and uploading to new map, if another server owner lets you.

So there's yet ANOTHER good reason to get Gold membership.

Nothing else for now, apart from a bunch of boring technical stuff I won't bore you with and the priority list is now upto 46 things I need to do for server and site (see other blog entry)

19) Recipes (Grass is default one, me and EXX figured out approach to gold ore, and MF has kindly suggested we add Sponge and Coloured Cloths). Anymore we could add, and if so, what should the ingredients be? *

26) Run server as job possibly via nhup command (thanks Enira!). Although mixed results so far. Need to do some research here.

27) ToDo plugin lol

28) Fix Daylight plugin - permaday is ok while we're working on spawn, but not beyond that.

29) SignCommands

30) Jail / Pink status *

31) GracefulReboot plugin

32) ClearInventory command

33) CleanInventory plugin

34) ReloadPlugin stuff

35) MOTD (Message of the Day), I wanna have loads to last quite some time. Any ideas? *

36) mIRC (good idea Enira!)

37) Find new plugins / discredit existing choices *

38) Help me find new (or suggest existing members) to have as good, trustworthy, reasonably bright Mods. I wanna be in position where server has at least 1 mod there 24 hours a day. Would be ideal if we could get Horsie and Spangel over from Siro's server. But not the general invite Hamen did last night which resulted in "To_Phat" coming over and me banning him 30 minutes later. *

39) CLASSIFIED

40) Find out how to improve CONSOLE chat *

41) Wait for Hey0 update DONE

42) Find out why Java keeps having nervous breakdown on server *

43) Find out why Whitelist isn't working properly * FIXED I THINK

44) Find possible alternatives to this web-hosting company (webs.com) *